Posts tagged ‘standing out’

Frankly I’m getting tired of seeing ignorant marketers slamming the success of G+ and the touting its eminent demise. I call them ignorant because they are evaluating based primarily on two factors.

The first factor

…is a data comparison between Google+ and FaceBook. Sometimes they show real data and sometimes it anecdotal. Either way the comparison is based on current FB data and current G+ data. This may seem O.K. but in fact it is erroneous. If a true comparison is to be made then these so called marketing experts should be comparing age based data. Not age of the people using them but the age of services. If an age data comparison is made I would think these experts would change their rather vocal ignorant arguments.

I recently had the opportunity to visit Google at Ann Arbor Michigan to speak with Kristoffer Sorensen about many great and powerful Google secrets – ok, there really wasn’t any secrets; but, it was still informative and entertaining. We did talk about several things; but, the one I’d like to talk about is Google+ Pages.

Disclaimer: I wanted to name them Fluffy Samurai Bunnies of BBQ Death but they said that FSBBBBQD wasn’t sexy enough.

By now most everyone who is involved with Google+ has either seen or owns a Google Plus Page. Have you thought about what you could really do with it though? Have you sat down with your Teddy Chipper Wood Chipper and sliced apart these pages into happy little bits? Probably not since at first glance they do seem kind of boring at face value. Since you haven’t tossed Google+ Pages into the ole creative wood chipper and turned them into mulch for your latest brand identity project then open your minds and prepare to have some creamy nougatty goodness poured directly into them.

For the purposes of illustration I’m going to make up a fictional product owned by 42wd Publishing.

Doc Harvard: It’s not often in the start up world that you get clean, straight forward and non-snake oil advice but I believe that Mike Alwill from Google has hit on something solid here. Normally I have a picture with my blogs but for this one I will forgo it to bring more focus on what is being said.

Take it away Mike –

What We Hear When We Listen

I have a tendency to overhear other people’s conversations without even trying. While at a bar, walking down the street or riding home on the subway, the words just find their way to me and all of a sudden I’m an audience member to someone else’s discussion.

Last night on my ride home I overheard three guys (a white dude, a black dude and an asian dude) discussing hiring strategy for startups. From their speech and clothing, I could tell they: A) had been drinking and B) were business students at NYU (they specifically mentioned the school several times).

The white dude also seemed to have his own startup (of 10 people) and was imparting his past experiences on the other two guys. Some of the topics included:

Joint-hosting a party of several startups that required each attendee to bring two people who were not in a startup but who would be good for one

The need to drink with a candidate to get their honest stance on particular issues

Making sure you find out that a candidate would “go to happy hour with you at 3pm on a Tuesday but stay at work until midnight on Wednesday”

Difficulty during salary negotiations such as “offering someone $33k but not knowing how to react if they ask for more OR the worry that if they do accept, maybe you could’ve offered them even less”

How startups don’t make formal offers but instead are likely to make an offer while out drinking with a friend or candidate

The general theme seemed to be about assessing candidates and making sure you figure out how to get at their inner selves so you know if you’re getting someone of quality which from what I could infer seemed to be someone who drinks, doesn’t take a high salary and follows whatever work schedule you want them to.

Not once did these guys mention selling or proving themselves to the candidate as a justification for why a candidate would want to devote themselves to their startups.

By now you’ve probably heard about Search for Google+. You’re also probably familiar with hashtagging. You’ve also most likely heard about the one-upmanship FaceBook has been attempting to keep pace with Google Plus features. You also are most likely painfully aware of the lack of business pages on Google+, currently my only real complaint about Google+.

What This All Means

FaceBook – suck it up and keep on using the crap they are pushing out to fast to try and keep up with Google+. Hopefully FaceBook will get it right and the people that are going to stay will benefit from the Google+ innovations that FaceBook is copying.

Lack of Google+ Pages – create profiles as real people and interact with your potential clients as people instead of just leads. I’ve interacted with people as just a normal person sharing conversational stuff as well as about 42wd Publishing. Until the business pages come this is the best we can do for now while staying within the Terms of Use.

Search for Google+ – love it and embrace it. I’ve been doing some of my own experiments with it and talked to others who have been experimenting with it as well. Here’s what I’ve come up with. Take it, use it, make it better and then share it with me and others.

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AwesomeWeb is the latest freelance job site to enter the market. It is a “marriage” of the teams behind 1stWebDesigner and IncomeDiary. They claim AwesomeWeb is an attractive alternative to the existing freelance job sites out there. How? By matching a select group of web designers and developers to higher quality projects. In theory, it [...] The post New […]

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